Siam
Siam (or Rattanakosin Kingdom) was a kingdom situated in Southeast Asia, It shares its borders with Burma, Laos, Khmer and Malaysia. It has and access to the Indian Ocean. They are the only country in Southeast Asia that survived the colonization of the Western country. Description Appearance They usually wear formal Thai costume, known in Thai as ชุดไทยพระราชนิยม (RTGS: chut thai phra ratcha niyom, literally Thai dress of royal endorsement), includes several sets of dress, designed as the Thai national costume in formal occasions. Although described and intended for use as national costume, they are of relatively modern origins, having been conceived in the second half of the 20th century. Traditional costumes Pha nung ' Main article: Pha nungThe pha nung(ผ้านุ่ง) is the Thai name for a cloth worn around the lower body that resembles a long skirt. '''Chong kraben ' Main article: Chang kbenChong kraben or Chang kben (Thai: โจงกระเบน ) is a lower-body, wraparound cloth. It is synonymous with the Khmer sampot. The sampot is a long, rectangular cloth worn around the lower body. The traditional dress is similar to the dhoti of South Asia. The chong kraben resembles pants more than skirts. It is a rectangular piece of cloth measuring three meters long and one meter wide. It is worn by wrapping around the waist, stretching it away from the body, twisting the ends together then pulling the twisted fabric between the legs and tucking it in the back of the waist. '''Sinh The sinh (Thai: ซิ่น ) is a tube skirt which is worn wrapped around the waist. A sinh typically consists of three parts: hua sinh, tua sinh, and tin sinh. Sabai Main article: SabaiSabai (Thai: สไบ ) or pha biang (Thai: ผ้าเบี่ยง) is shawl-like garment, or breast cloth. Sabais can be used by women or men. The sabai is also known as a long piece of silk, about a foot wide, draped diagonally around the chest by covering one shoulder which its end drops behind the back. Sabais could be worn around the naked chest or on top of another cloth. The practice of wearing Sabai along with Victorian cloth was a common practice during the reign of King Chulalongkorn and lasted until the reign of King Vajiravudh when Westernized clothing became more fashionable. The wearing of sabais as daily wear was officially banned by Plaek Pibulsonggram during Thailand's clothing reform. Suea pat Main article: Suea patSuea pat (Thai: เสื้อปัด ) is a long-sleeved shirt with no buttons. It is worn by wrapping the right side of the front panel of the shirt over the left side of the front panel, and the two panels are tied together via strings. Suea pats are typically worn by northern Thai women Raj pattern Main article: Raj patternRaj pattern (Thai: ราชปะแตน) refers either to a Thai men's costume consisting of a white Nehru-style jacket with five buttons, a chong kraben, knee-length socks, and dress shoes, or to the specific form of the jacket itself. It was worn chiefly during the late–19th and early–20th centuries by government officials and the upper class in Bangkok, and nowadays is used in select circumstances as a national costume. Personality They smile most of the time. They are very polite, looks shy and weak. Although Siam does not have an army that is as strong as others But Siam has a diplomatic ability that is more outstanding than others. They look innocent, but they are not at all. They themselves have the same dark side as others. Both the cruel things that have been done on Khmer and Laos And the story that is hardly anyone knows. Interests Flag meaning Throughout its history, Siam has changed its flag very frequently. * The first flag (1790-1820) - A plain red flag with a white chakra. Representing the Chakri Dynasty * The second flag (1820-1843) - The previous flag with a white elephant inside the chakra. The white elephant is considered sacred and the symbol of royal power. * The third flag (1843-1893) - Removed the chakra and put more details on the elephant's body. It is the most used flag in the fandom. Other symbols Nicknames * The land of the smile Origin of the language Etymology History Siam Becomes Thailand People speaking one of the Tai group of languages settled in what is now Thailand around 1,000 years ago. The name Siam came from a Sanskrit word, syam. It was adopted by the Portuguese from the 16th century and became the accepted geographical term. Kingdoms rose and fell, but from the 1780s the Chakri dynasty ruled the whole of Siam from their capital at Bangkok. They extended their domain into parts of modern Laos, Cambodia and Malaya, but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries they were forced to surrender their territories there to the French. In 1927 a radical People’s Party was formed. One of its founders was an army officer called Phibun (in full, Luang Phibunsongkhram), who in 1932 helped to lead a coup against the Chakri king and set up a government closer to a western-style democracy, with a parliament. The monarchy survived, but in 1938 Phibun took charge as dictator. A forceful nationalist and moderniser, he changed the country’s name to Thailand. The change was part of Phibun’s determination to bring his people into the modern world and at the same time to emphasise their unique identity. It was an anti-Chinese move with the slogan ‘Thailand for the Thai’. There were many Chinese in the country and many prosperous Chinese businesses, but Phibun cut down immigration from China and government-backed Thai businesses were set up, while the use of Mandarin in Chinese schools was limited to two hours a week. Thailand adopted the western calendar, a new flag was created and a new national anthem, while Phibun demanded that Thais wore western-style clothes, including hats. Thailand was allied with Japan in the Second World War and Phibun was forced to resign in 1944, but he returned to power with military backing in 1948 and the army ran Thailand with support from the US. Phibun was finally ousted by rivals in 1957. He retreated to Japan and died there at the age of 66 in 1964. Siam in 1914 In 1914 Siam faced a number of challenges. Internationally, its sovereignty was not secure. While it had never been formally colonised, its existence in a period of imperialism depended to a large part on the policies of its colonialist neighbours, Britain and France. It had been forced to concede territory to them only a few years earlier and was limited in its foreign trade and domestic jurisdiction over foreigners by unequal treaties. Siam was an absolute monarchy ruled by Vajiravudh, King of Siam (1881-1925), who had adopted the dynastic name Rama VI. Buddhist religious practice and education were deeply interwoven with the kingdom’s feudal structure. Society was predominantly agrarian, with the capital Bangkok the only urban centre. Industrial development was in its infancy and much of the commercial activity was in the hands of Chinese immigrants who had moved to Siam in large numbers in the previous decades. The British-educated Vajiravudh had ascended the throne in 1910, after the long and transformative reign of his father, Chulalongkorn, King of Siam (1853-1910). Vajiravudh, with his artistic sensibility and shyness in public, struggled with the bureaucratic demands of governing the country. He did not enjoy the great popular support his father had received, and had already faced a serious challenge to his rule in an averted plot attempt originating among junior army officers in 1912. The Siamese state had been undergoing an extensive administrative reform process, during which it adopted many elements of Western administrative culture in order to strengthen central rule over the kingdom and make the government more effective. The state employed Western technical advisers and developed a legal system along Western lines. This reform process was driven by two distinct groups: by the king’s uncles, cousins and brothers, some of whom had been involved in the reform since the previous reign; and, increasingly, by an emerging civilian bureaucracy. The West was the focal point for the ruling royal and civilian elite; it epitomised modernity and civilisation in statesmanship, military, law, technology, aesthetics, arts, fashion, education and commerce. Siam’s economy during this period was dominated by rice production. Its only other marketable commodities were teak, sugar, rubber and tin. The manufacturing and financial industries were still in their infancy. Aided by the development of infrastructure and decreasing transport costs during the first decades of the 20th century, the Thai rice industry was integrated into the regional economy in Southeast Asia and southern China, exporting nearly one-third of its total production. Siam was the third-largest rice exporter after British Burma and French Indochina. Rice production and exports grew slowly but steadily during this period, as did the economy as a whole; Siam’s imports were limited primarily to construction materials, machinery and consumer goods. Hampered by limitations in the unequal treaties to the duties that could be levied on imports, a quarter of state revenue came from the licensed sale of opium during this period. The First World War initially disrupted foreign trade when shipping routes between Siam and Europe were blocked, but then led Siam’s exports to grow in the non-European markets, primarily in trade with Japan and the United States. The First World War had a significant negative impact on Siam’s public finances and economy by causing a sharp increase in global silver prices, making the material value of Siamese coins higher than their face value. This led people to hoard and melt down coins to sell the silver abroad. In 1919-1920 things came to a head when economic mismanagement and the lack of capital were aggravated by a disastrous rice crop. In the following years, Siam found itself in both a financial and an economic crisis. The government even banned rice exports during 1920, in spite of peaking international demand, in order to ensure domestic supply. Public accounts remained in deficit until the end of the reign. Bangkok had a sizeable community of Western diplomats and businessmen. The British were dominant, but others, including the French, Germans, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Austrians, Russians, Americans, and the notable non-Western exception, the Japanese, all vied for political and economic influence in mining, timber, shipping and trading, and infrastructure development. Siam did not view Germany as a colonial power in Southeast Asia. Germany was therefore perceived markedly differently from Siam’s imperialist neighbours, Britain, France and the Netherlands. German trading firms successfully set up shop in Bangkok, and German shipping lines soon dominated passenger and cargo transport between Bangkok and the two major trading hubs, Singapore and Hong Kong. German shipping lines so dominated the transport between these ports that when war broke out in 1914 and German ships were no longer available, Siam’s foreign trade collapsed for a period of several weeks before ships from other countries filled the gap. In Siam, German technology was considered cutting-edge. For the advanced technology of the time – the railway and the telegraph – Siam used German firms, engineers, equipment and technological standards. The same can be said for German medicine which was imported from Germany, much like other advanced technology. Siam had been employing German technology and expertise for the administrative and technological development of the country. German and American influence among the large group of foreign advisers and competing foreign interests in Siam served to counterbalance that of France and Great Britain. Siam in World War I The Kingdom of Siam, now known as Thailand, is possibly one of the least well-known participants in World War I. Siam fought against the Central Powers by an active contribution, whatever the actual military value, to one of the most gruelling and critical campaigns of the war. It sent an Expeditionary Force dispatched to France, to serve on the Western Front. Siam entered the war in July 1917 by declaring war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. Following acclimatisation, both military and meteorological, and specialist training, the Siamese contingent began operations on the Western Front in the middle of September 1918. The war ended soon afterwards, but following the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Siamese troops also contributed to the initial occupation of Rhineland, when they took over the town of Neustadt an der Haardt. ''22 July 1917, Siam declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. Twelve German vessels docked in Siamese ports were immediately seized. The crews and other Central Power nationals were detained and sent to India to join their fellow citizens in British India's existing civilian internment camps. Siam was the sole country in Southeast Asia to maintain full independence from the great empires during the colonial era. It was the only state in the region to enter the conflict entirely of its own free will, as an equal of the European powers rather than as part of their imperial contingents. As a clear symbol of the new two-track strategy of active association with the world powers and of renewal and restructuring within the nation, the King authorised a re-design of the national flag. The new flag had an extra colour, blue, and was arranged in stripes. It was said to represent the three elements of the nation: creed, crown and community. Noticeably, representation of the military was subsumed between him and the people. The new colours of blue, white and red, also sat comfortably, almost certainly deliberately, along the flags of Serbia, Russia, France, Great Britain and the United States. The new flag appeared on the 28 September 1917. Initially, two variants were common: the current minimalist five horizontal bands and a variant maintaining the continuity and prestige of the old flag, with the traditional white elephant symbol on a red disc, from the old flag, superimposed over the new stripes, a variant still the flag of the Royal Thai Navy. When the Siamese Expeditionary Force marched in the 1919 victory parade, it was behind the hybrid flag. In September 1917, a volunteer expeditionary force was assembled, consisting of medical, motor transport and aviation detachments. By early 1918, 1,284 men were selected from thousands of volunteers. The force, commanded by Major-General Phraya Bhijai Janriddhi , was destined to be sent to France. On 30 July 1918, the Siamese landed in Marseilles. Some 370 pilots and groundcrew were sent to air schools in Istres, Le Crotoy, La Chapelle-la-Reine, Biscarosse and Piox for retraining, as the pilots were deemed incapable of withstanding high altitude air combat. On 1 August, with French and British divisions advancing to the German positions on the Marne, the French selected some men from the Siamese detachment to form the first Siamese labour volunteer detachment. They received brief training and arrived at the front on 4 August 1918 during the Second Battle of the Marne. Phya Bhijai Janriddhi served as observer during the battle. This was the first Siamese contingent to see the frontline trenches. This was followed by the ground forces actively proceeding to the fighting front in mid September. In the same month the medical and motor transport detachments were sent to the front lines and took part in the 1918 Champagne and Meuse-Argonne Offensives. Siamese airmen had not finished training when the time the Armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed. The ground forces, on the other hand, had distinguished themselves under fire and were awarded the Croix de Guerre and Order of Rama decorations. The ground forces participated in the occupation of Neustadt an der Haardt in the Rhineland region of Germany and also took part in the 1919 Paris Victory Parade. Organizations and Affiliations Politics Government Diplomacy Geography Relationships Future Versions *Thailand *Free Thai - (World War II) Past Versions * Ayutthaya *Thonburi Friends * Portugal * India * Japan * China * Spain * Sweden * Denmark * Prussia * Russian Empire * Netherlands Neutral * France * United Kingdom Enemies * Opinions Trivia Gallery Category:Former Countries Category:Asia Category:Everything Category:Characters Category:Eastern Hemisphere Category:Kingdoms Category:Buddhist Countries